Doug Jones Talks Falling Skies, The Strain, Crimson Peak & Hellboy 3

Discussion with the King of Practical Effects Characters

You may not instantly recognize his face but that’s only because he’s the man behind the mask making many of your favorite extravagant heroes and villains. Doug Jones has been featured in countless films and television series, often decked head to toe in intense make-up, including Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Pan’s Labyrinth, and both Hellboy‘s.

The all-too-often unsung hero has a busy schedule on the horizon. Serving as Falling Skies’ human-friendly Volm alien, Cochise and the Ancient (which isn’t his only role) on The Strain, as well as a mostly unknown (until now!) role in Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak, Jones keeps himself busy and us entertained.

We caught up with Jones exclusively to talk about the upcoming final season of Falling Skies, his return to The Strain, Crimson Peak, and more.

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CB: Falling Skies is hitting it’s final season, what can we expect from it? Any big moments you can share?

DJ: Cochise has now developed friendships, especially by Tom Mason and by Noah Wyle and he’s observing this family unit and how that ripple effect goes outward and effects everyone around him. He’s quite touched by this human emotions thing, because the Volm are very non-intellectual, very get the job done, and now he sees people who are getting the job done while caring about each other at the same time. So, hey! This is different! I think if Cochise was on his home planet again he would be the one sitting in the tree writing poetry. He’s discovered that part of himself by seeing these human emotions so he kind of wants to stay and in season four, it came out that he stayed against his father’s will.

So, I’ve been here on Earth, not with my father’s blessing. So, episode four, this coming season, which will be happening sometime mid to late July, you will see a very large story line for Cochise in that episode where we get to visit dad and those issues will come to a boiling head. It’s a turning point for Cochise and my whole allegiance thing. Am I here on Earth to stay? Am I going to be going back home with my Volm people? That’s gonna be maybe hinted at, you’ll get more of an idea of that by the end of that episode. The writers really knock it out of the park. You’re gonna laugh, you’re gonna cry, you’re gonna feel all kinds of things by watching Cochise’s story.

The writers did a great job of adding some humor this year with this cultural clash that happens all the time, and also a great job of getting my storyline involved with some other people now. I was legitimate leadership. It was basically, you’d see me interacting with Tom Mason and Will Patton’s Colonel Weaver, those are my two main points, now I have more interaction with Dingaan, played by Treva Etienene, he’s another smart guy on the show so us smart guys have to collaborate a lot on what’s gonna happen next, or you know, whatever. And then there’s also some heartfelt story with Maggie, played by Sarah Carter, and then a little more interaction with the little son on the show, Ben Mason played by Connor Jessup. So they kind of spread the love a little but more this year for Cochise.

Is there another alien race coming this season?

Oh, right! That was hinted at, wasn’t it?

Yeah! In season four it was teased.

Well, I’ll tell you this much. Let’s review. At the last moment of season four, Tom Mason and his daughter Lexi has flown a Beamer to the moon to bring down the Espheni power core. This was key in winning our battle. Successful. The power core did come down and all Espheni electronics all went “[power down sound].” Successful. It was hinted that we might have lost Lexi for good and then Tom is sort of sitting out there in space by himself and the last thing that you see is just like a six-legged creature and he looks in the mirror and just says, “You’re so beautiful.”

So, that leaves a lot of questions open as they went to black, right? That will be readdressed several times throughout season five. You’ll see that character show up again and again. So, those questions of “Is it another race of alien?” and “What functions do they serve?” and “What do they know that can help the humans in this final battle?” That will be touched upon in episode one. They might be key in saving Tom. I might have said too much!

Shortly after Falling Skies returns, The Strain comes back. Now, you were around for a little bit of it’s first season. Can we expect to see you make a return in season 2?

I’d say more than a good chance because I already filmed two episodes for season 2 of The Strain. So, you will see me in the season opener. That’s July 12, which is competing with Falling Skies! That’s why the kids use that DVR now.

Oh, no! Which one will you watch live!

I know, right!

I won’t make you pick a favorite child! Don’t do it!

Good! I mustn’t say! But, you’ll actually see me as two different characters in The Strain’s season opener. The very opening scene of season 2 is going to be a flashback. The flashback will take you back in time a bit to show you how the Master became the Master. I might have a hand in that! Heavy make-up from head to toe and you know… Later in the episode, you will see me return as the leader of the Ancients and then we come back in episode 6 of season 2… The Ancients do. So, they’re keeping the Ancients alive and integral to the story here and there.

Well, Guillermo del Toro is so talented with story telling and visuals. Whenever he’s involved with something it’s great.

Right. His thumbprint is all over that show for sure, much like Spielberg’s is on Falling Skies in a capacity where all those final things go through them. And thankfully! Because the both have such cinematic know-hows and they’re taking TV above and beyond, now.

Speaking of Guillermo del Toro, Crimson Peak is getting closer and closer. Can you share any details on that yet?

Oh gosh, this has been a long time coming because I actually filmed my bits for Crimson Peak back in 2014. So, yeah, it’s been a while. I had to be as hush hush as possible about it then. I told Guillermo del Toro when I was leaving, when I had wrapped up my bits for Crimson Peak, “I’m gonna be doing an awful lot of interviews! Between now and the opening of this movie I’m in many other things.” He said, “Well, umm, tell them it’s a haunted house story and what the ‘ef’ do they think you played?” So, okay, there’s your answer!

But now that the trailer has come out, you’ve seen me a couple times in the trailer, so I can tell you… I am a couple of lady ghosts in this movie. Now, I say lady ghosts because my friend Javier Botet, another tall skinny man, also plays a lady ghost in this movie. I will not tell you why they’re lady ghosts but the house, the mansion, Crimson Peak, is haunted. That’s why Mia Wasikowska is brought into the storyline. Well, it’s her story. We follow her from Buffalo, New York, all the way to England where she marries Tom Hiddleston. Tom Hiddleston’s sister, Jessica Chasten, turns out to be a bit of an odd relationship that is sort of threatening the marriage of Mia and Tom. It’s a great personal, emotional, relationship set up. All the while it takes place in this house which is another character in the movie for sure. There’s another side love interest you’ll see, with Charlie Hunnam from Sons of Anarchy.

It’s an amazing cast so my bid in this is, yeah, you can see me in the trailers as the bathtub ghost. I’m the dark reddish looking ghost in the bathtub. That’s a very pivotal scene in the movie. Another scene, you’ll see my dark hands coming through a door reaching for Mia and at the very end of the trailer I think you’ll see my hands come around the shoulder of a little girl which will be Mia as a younger girl. What do ghosts do? Are they trying to move on to the next dimension? Are they trying to heed warning? Are they trying to get revenge? What do they want? You can ask yourself all those questions, for people who do believe that ghosts exist, why do they exist? Why are the lingering around? All of those will be addressed in this movie.

Cool. I was at the San Diego Comic Con panel for Crimson Peak and ever since, I’ve been really excited to finally lay my eyes on that movie.

Yeah, talk about del Toro’s lush, beautiful, and colorful sensibility. Oh my gosh, that trailer is just eye candy. I love that he set it in the Victorian era, as well. The sets and the costumes… It was such a great world to play in.

Last thing, I’m speaking to Ron Perlman later today because he’s recently been trying to rally some fans for Hellboy III and get that going—

Boy, the last couple days have been exciting on that webbernet! Haven’t they been?

Yeah! Is Hellboy III something you’d want to do? Anything you want me to tell Ron or the people?

If you’ve been following the Twitter links back and forth… We started this whole hoo-hah on Twitter and now it’s taken to his Facebook fan page and Instagram and everywhere. He wanted to get the #HellboyIII going. I just happened to see it in my news feed as I was scrolling down Twitter, because we follow each other, and I see him saying, “Let’s get this mother f—er going!” That’s the first time I’ve seen him try to rally the troops over this because, you know, it’s been years we’ve been all wanting to do it, but Guillermo has a third one in mind. He’s got a storyline I’m sure you’ve seen hints of.

Ron wants to return. I want to return. Selma Blair wants to return. If we all want to do it creatively but it’s just not happening, my guess would be it’s a money issue somewhere. So, it seems like Ronnie wants to show money people that the audience is there. If they just make the movie the audience is gonna be there. So, I jumped in right away. I sent a tweet back to him in reply to his hashtag request and said, “Locking elbows with you brother red,” and I put “#HellboyIII” and he copy pasted that and added “With you alongside how can we miss?” Something like that. It’s all out there somewhere.

So, I put up a post myself yesterday. A split screen. I guest starred on Sons of Anarchy a couple years ago, little guest cameo in season 6. It was a hideous beast I played. I was a prison guard while Ron was in prison and I wasn’t behaving well. So, there’s a screen capture of the two of us from that show and then underneath it is a screen capture of the two of us from Hellboy II and I just put up a post saying, “So my guest cameo on Sons of Anarchy was not the reunion you were hoping for? Let’s do what Ronnie’s asking and #HellboyIII!” That kind of made the rounds yesterday in a huge way. So today, I might put a picture of Selma and I to get her in the loop. We all want to do it.

Abe Sapien is my favorite costume character I’ve ever played. I love them all. I feel like they’re all my kids but Abe is the one I’ve most connected with and probably I most like. Abe is a brotherly one that I just adore and cherish. Ronnie has said that Hellboy is his favorite character that he’s ever played. So, if we could return to these, to finish out the storyline that we left dangling, we’d all get some closure out of it. Yes, I do want it to happen so desperately. From what Guillermo has hinted at before, this third one is gonna take an epicly bigger budget, so will a studio be wiling to cough that up? I don’t know.

Well, best of luck. I hope to see it come to life and then we can talk again.